May 19th to June 30th, 2011
Opening Reception : Thursday, May 19th at 7PM
Doug Guildford
Lives in Toronto, returns every summer to his native coast of Nova Scotia
Installation and works on paper in the main gallery.
Doug Guildford’s artistic practice is rooted in drawing, encompasses printmaking and allows for obsessive sculptural crochet projects. Until recently, his work on paper has primarily been a response to the natural world; an examination of the minutia of marine flora and fauna, tidal patterns, and geological shifts. 10 years ago the artist began collecting and editing bait bags, rope, and fishing tackle that wash up on the shore by his home in Nova Scotia. These cultural artifacts – the flotsam and jetsam of salvaged fragments of tools and materials, resonate for the artist as evidence of the expiring offshore fishery. This found material led him to crochet his sculptural pieces he calls nets. Each net piece is a work-in-progress, never to be finished. He shows them formally in galleries, and casually in situ, photo-documenting them in environmental contexts. Guildford’s work on paper has also become sculptural and feels akin to the crocheted pieces. He draws upon the strength and versatility of Japanese papers by sewing and shaping pieces from composite prints and drawings.
Doug Guildford was the first prize winner in the 1999 Ernst & Young Great Canadian Printmaking Competition and an honourable mention in the 2002 Great Canadian Printmaking Competition. In 2003, Guildford received the Pollock-Krasner award for his ongoing body of work. His prints are held in such collections as the Canada Council Art Bank, Fidelity Trust, and the Canadian Environmental Law Association. Recent solo exhibitions include in 2009: Edward Day Gallery, Toronto, ON; Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, ON; and Saint Mary’s University Art Gallery, Halifax, NS. The same year he completed a summer print-shop residency at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.
